From NYTimes.com: A Philippine court convicted 14 members of the Abu Sayaff group today in the 2001 kidnapping of 20 people off an island
resort, including three Americans, two of whom were eventually killed.

The 14 were sentenced to life imprisonment. Four others were acquitted.

Robert
Courtney, a Department of Justice attaché at the United States Embassy
in Manila, said the verdict “sends a strong message about the
capability of Philippine law enforcement to deal with terrorist
activities.”

The kidnappers took their hostages to the island
of Basilan, which was Abu Sayyaf’s base of operations at the time.
Guillermo Sobero, a Peruvian-born American from California, was
beheaded. Some of the others paid ransoms and were freed.

There
were accusations of collusion between Abu Sayyaf and some elements of
the military, particularly after the kidnappers managed to escape from
a hospital in Basilan that had been surrounded by soldiers. A
subsequent Senate investigation found “circumstantial evidence” of
collusion between the militants and some civilian and military
officials.

Thirteen months after the kidnappings, an
American-supported military operation tried to free the remaining
hostages, including Martin and Gracia Burnham, a missionary couple from
Wichita, Kan. But Mr. Burnham and a Filipino nurse, Ediborah Yap, were
killed. Rest of Article. . . [Mark Godsey]